Posts Tagged 'sports'

Exercise can be beneficial to many different aspects of your health and well-being—but it’s also easy to overdo things and injure yourself in the process. Even the best athletes often suffer from common injuries, especially when they’re pushing themselves to the limit and training for demanding events. One of the most common injuries that can occur in almost any activity is a “pulled” or strained muscle. This is actually a bit of a misnomer, since the terms refer to a torn muscle. These injuries are not only painful, they can put you out of commission for weeks or months, depending on the degree of the sprain. If you’ve pulled a muscle try these 4 tips for recovery so you can be back in the gym with your health and wellness apps and crunches sooner rather than later.

Whew! I made it through another semester of graduate school. Interestingly, one of my assignments for this semester required me to complete extensive research into a topic of my choosing. In the end my topic, as it often does, centered on adaptive sports. Since the health benefits of sports participation are well known, I was intrigued by non-health benefits that can be derived from playing sports.

Not for the date that cast you off, not for the taunts of relatives that you want to thrust off, and not for the ‘fat shaming’ accuses you want to get rid of, just to fall in love with your body and become a person you will always be proud of.

My entire life I have always loved the summer season. As a child, summer meant many hours of playing outside, swim practices and meets, camping, riding bikes, family outings and countless hours of hanging out with friends. In fact, outdoor play was commonplace and enforced by my parents. Our family, friends and community made sure there were many planned events and activities to take part in! There was very little television or video gaming in our household. I was having too much fun, so I had no need to be stagnant. A true fact is that my mom would have to force all us kids out of the pool to eat lunch or dinner. We all were having a blast and would lose track of time!

Hence my sense of adventure, need for speed, and try anything attitude. I have a thirst for sun rays, sports, recreation and friends. I love being around water, whether it is a lake, ocean, beach , pool, or a waterfall! To me, water is peaceful, calming, beautiful, and provides entertainment and adventure! My reason and love for water has encouraged me to look at new activities with excitement and adrenaline. I don’t only enjoy the activity for the time I spend in serenity and with friends. I do believe that taking time for myself truly decreases the stresses in life! I did not even mention the sense of accomplishment when I learn a new activity or skill.

Now as an adult, I have my bucket list. In my post college years, I have added water, snow skiing, and sled skating to things I love. There is also tubing and kayaking. Handcycling is a joy as well. I still have more on my list. Rock climbing, zip lining, and white water rafting will be done as soon as possible. I challenge me and you to say, “What’s next?” and go for it! Be quick, because the warm weather is not here but once a year. Always know that every season has a bucket list of opportunities and adventures, so get out there!

As a person with a physical disability I am, at times, approached by people and told that I am a very courageous person. Now, we can talk for hours on what this really means. We can talk and try to understand what the person was really trying to say. Recently, ESPN made an effort to define what courage means to them with an award. Not just any award but the one named after Arthur Ashe.

It’s important that people with disabilities lead a healthy active lifestyle and that having a disability should not exclude anyone from being active. As the saying goes the “only disability in life is bad attitude”, people with disabilities like to exercise just like anyone else. It’s sad to note that many communities emphasizes on physical exercise only for people without disabilities not providing any services or adaptions for people with disabilities and chronic illness. This is unfortunate since many people with disabilities are inactive and have a higher risk of contracting cardiovascular diseases, type 2 diabetes and other diseases that arise due to lack of physical fitness.

As we close out the end of the year, there are so many things to be happy with if you are a person with a disability. For the most part we did have success athletic year. However, there can be moments that have a small impact in our world as well as a large impact.

In our world of competitive sports, it is so easy to love the big names LeBron, Serena, Jeter, Peyton, Messi, and Crosby. They bring so much joy, sadness, wonder and triumph into our lives. In the ever increasing world of wheelchair sports there are some big names that the spotlight shines on as well.

“My name is Bob Lujano. I am very blessed person because I am employed and compete as an athlete in wheelchair rugby.” This was my introduction as I was on a panel to discuss the role of media and how it portrays athletes with a disability. In regards to this topic there are so many roads that this discussion can follow. I know that sitting at a table and trying to map this out can be difficult. I will try to guides us on a short and narrow road.